A sex attacker was caught and convicted after he was found to be carrying the DNA of the partner of the woman he assaulted.

Nigel Pope had claimed that he had been ‘looking for a lighter’ when he put his hands under the sheets that were covering his victim.

He claimed when arrested that the DNA that was found on his hands must have ‘come off a cushion’, but a jury at Mold crown court rejected his claim and he was today found guilty and sentenced to five years in jail.

Pope, 64, showed a “callous and complete indifference” to his victim and had no reason to believe she wanted any sexual contact with him, he was told by Judge Rhys Rowlands as he was sent down.

The judge described him as having “a complete lack of any morals at all”.

The court heard he had been drinking with his much younger victim on the day he attacked her. She had decided to take a nap and then Pope took the opportunity to assault her.

Prosecuting barrister Simon Rogers told the jury that Pope, of Wrexham , took advantage of the victim while she slept.

She awoke to find him assaulting her, she realised what was happening and shouted at him. He immediately stopped and then left, without saying a word.

She telephoned the police and when he was arrested he said “I know what this is about.”

Interviewed, he denied penetrating the woman with his fingers and said that he looked for a lighter under a sheet which covered the woman.

He moved her, she began shouting at him so he left.

Pope maintained his story after the DNA evidence was revealed and said it must have got onto his fingers in some other way.

Nigel Pope arriving at Mold crown court (Image: Viewfinder Pix)

Henry Hills, defending, said his client denied any sexual contact.

After the jury had found Pope guilty, Mr Hills said he was a man of good character who was married with grown up children but who lived apart from his wife.

In a victim impact statement, the woman told how she thought about what had happened every day.

She felt worthless, she had lost trust in people and said that she had been terrified when she had seen the defendant in the run up to the trial.

The victim told how his offending had made her question herself, she blamed herself, and said it had caused a great deal of self-doubt.

She suffered regular panic attacks, went over what had happened and described the run up to the trial as “horrendous”.

Pope, of New Road, Wrexham, must register as a sex offender for life, and must never go within 500 metres of the woman’s home for the next 10 years.